 A regular column on the most American of activities.
By Paula Marantz Cohen |
| Counter Argument The department store makeover really is transformative: You leave feeling a whole lot uglier and poorer.
|
| A Dressing-Down Yes, people wear shorts to the opera. But that just means I can wear a cocktail dress to the supermarket.
|
| On Value I tried to determine if my painting was an actual Sheeler. The art museum's conclusion? Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't.
|
| Lo' and Behold I know what's behind a logo such as Louis Vuitton's LV, and yet I still want a $1,600 Vuitton bag. Go figure!
|
| Paper or Plastic? There is always a price to pay for new technology, but right now I'M JUST TOO EXCITED THAT MY KINDLE HOLDS 1,000 BOOKS!
|
| Crossing the Tan Line We work hard to cover our breasts and penises. And then summer comes along.
|
| French Lessons A new exhibit explores Americans' obsession with French fashion (and the knock-offs they spawned at home).
|
| A Temporary Uplift Want to end patriarchal oppression? Don't burn your bra — just get one that fits.
|
| Boob Tube A 50-inch plasma TV feels gauche, but that's the shuffling progress of civilization for you.
|
| Refueling Think things are slow on the NJ Turnpike? Try eating at its rest stops.
|
| Have Tour, Will Travel In the market for a trip to China's Three Gorges, before the dam makes it one giant liquidation sale.
|
| Sex? All the talk on Sex and the City misses both what's right and what's wrong with the film.
|
| Body Service How Brazilian waxes make our era less like the freewheeling '60s and more like the Victorian years.
|
| Bag Ladies Class struggles, identity, democratization, and postmodernism. They're all tied up in the shopping bag.
|
| Open House The open house: Sunday afternoon voyeurism.
|
| The End of the Affair I loved reading books. Buying them. Writing them. But in the age of the megastores, the love affair is over.
|
| Home Bodies A home show is a domestic circus, with homeowners as its Super Mop-buying freaks.
|
| Replacing the Volvo Deeply entrenched in a suburban lifestyle, I'm supposed to love my Volvo. But the car is not lovable.
|
| Shopping With Henry Jaglom Going Shopping is Henry Jaglom's third film on female neurotic desires. Is he a genius or a jerk?
|
| Department Store Elegy Department store culture belied the fact that women had nothing to do but shop. But they were an experience, smoky aisles and all.
|
| Thrift Shop Buying To some, thrift stores are disgusting. To me, they hint at lives I'll never know.
|
| Souvenirs Leather belt from Rio or fur hat from Russia, the souvenir is not so much a remembrance of things past as a promise of things to come.
|
| The Impossibility of Gift-Giving Mauss said gift-giving was more about form than content. He must never have been gifted an ugly bracelet.
|
| Supermarkets Why a supermarket is never quite right.
|
| The Last Taboo To praise shopping is to breach the last taboo of academic culture.
|
| |
